Paterno statue comes down, NCAA to take 'punitive measures' against Penn State today.

Penn State senior Mike Elliott got his photograph taken early Sunday morning at the famed statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium, just moments before construction crews began dismantling it.

After keeping a nightly vigil with the statue since Tuesday, Elliott and a friend stood under the glare of the media as authorities barricaded streets and sidewalks to remove the 900-pound statue, a tribute to the revered football coach now accused of covering up child sex-abuse allegations against a retired assistant.

Police allowed them to take the photo, perhaps the last one of visitors to the statue. It shows Elliott and his friend embracing the 7-foot, bronze likeness of the legendary coach, their heads lowered, a contrast to the exuberant statue.

"He was a hero to so many students, and the board and the president didn't have the courtesy to tell their own students [about its removal]," Elliott said. "Instead, they told the media so that everyone in America can be happy that it's coming down."

Penn State President Rodney Erickson issued a statement around 7 a.m. Sunday that said he decided to remove the statue and put it into storage because it "has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing."

As workers wrapped a blue tarp around the statue to cart it off to a "secure location," the NCAA announced it will levy "corrective and punitive measures" against Penn State on Monday morning, the latest fallout in the wake of the scandal and the scathing report that found the school's leaders covered up allegations against now-convicted former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The discipline could include sanctions that would cripple the multimillion-dollar football program, the university and the community.

Erickson did not mention the NCAA's pending action in his news release about the statue.

"I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse," Erickson said.

He said the other campus landmark to the coach, the Paterno Library, will keep his name because it "symbolizes the substantial and lasting contributions to the academic life and educational excellence that the Paterno family has made to Penn State University."

The decision was immediately met with outcry from Paterno's supporters, some who chanted "We are … Penn State" as workers took down the statue.

The Paterno family issued a statement Sunday morning, saying the removal does not "serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky's horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community."

In the statement, the family says the independent investigation by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, released on July 12, is not a definitive conclusion to the Sandusky scandal, and that Joe Paterno never had a hearing. The statement said Penn State officials should have taken a "strong stand in support of due process."

"It is not the university's responsibility to defend or protect Joe Paterno," the statement said. "But they, at least, should have acknowledged that important legal cases are still pending and that the record on Joe Paterno, the board and other key players is far from complete."

Maribeth Roman Schmidt, spokeswoman for Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, said the decision underscores the penchant of Penn State's leadership for acting without all the facts.

"Using the Freeh Report — a flawed and incomplete review of the case — as the basis for this decision is cowardly and irresponsible," Schmidt said. "This latest action only serves to validate our continual demand for resignation of the remaining members of the Board of Trustees."

But Penn State Faculty Senate President Larry Backer said the choice to remove the statue makes sense given the amount of emotion focused on it. He said he also respects the manner in which the administration announced its decision.

"I think that the university tried to be sensitive, given the explosive nature of the decision, so one could understand the choices it made, especially with respect to timing," said Backer, a Dickinson School of Law professor.

By removing the statue for safe-keeping, he said, the administration will take out of the spotlight a symbol that has become a distraction at a time when the Penn State community has serious work to do.

"By focusing on the symbol, we're not focusing on the main job, which is reforming our culture … and making sure that children are not imperiled," Backer said.

Backer noted that although a university spokesman said last week Erickson would seek input from members of the university community, the faculty senate was not involved in the process.

"It's hard for me to say more than I respect the choice because I don't have a basis for judging the factors that were considered to make it," Backer said.